Nhlanhla ‘Mount Kilimanjaro’ Tyirha will be more like relaunching his boxing career when he comes up against Zimbabwean Ndabezinhle Phiri in just over two weeks’ time.
The Mdantsane-born former South African junior-flyweight champion is going to square up against Phiri in a catchweight bout at the Orient Theatre in East London on Sunday, 25 August.
This is the first time Tyirha fights since he was stunned by Malawian George Kandulo, who stopped him in the eighth round, at the East London International Convention Centre (ICC) early in July last year.
“When his fight was cancelled, I thought that Tyirha still has to prove himself. We then negotiated for him to fight on the 25th. To him, this is a way to show who he is. It’s gonna be his first fight under me. He must make a statement,” Tyirha’s manager Mlandeli Tengimfene said.
“He was beaten live on TV and many people saw the fight. He must go and restore his dignity. He must redeem himself so that everything can go back to where it was before. This is a very important fight for him and a spectacular win is needed. Our plan is to make sure that he fights for the SA title and then we will relaunch him internationally.”
Losing to Kandulo came at a heavy price for Tyirha as he was rated by the world’s top four boxing bodies before meeting the Malawian.
He was sixth in both the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the International Boxing Federation (IBF), 12th in the World Boxing Association (WBA) ratings and was seventh in the World Boxing Organisation (WBO). – Monwabisi Jimlongo
